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Façade of Order. The disenchantment with the militant Buddhists stemmed in part from their insatiable and constantly changing demands. The Ky government first agreed to constitutional general elections, now set for Sept. 11, at the behest of the Buddhists. Having got that, the militants then demanded last week that the ten-general Directory, now at best an interim government, be expanded by the addition of ten civilians. When Ky also agreed to that, the political monks further insisted that the enlarged council have the right to elect a new Chief of State and Premier—meaning that Thieu and Ky would have to step down.
On that point, Ky balked. Tri Quang's response at week's end: threat of a complete Buddhist boycott of the September elections unless Ky quits now. Otherwise, he said, "the Americans and their servants would establish a militaristic national assembly." If Tri Quang's usually pear-shaped tones lost some of their resonance, it was because, for all the week's burnt offerings to the Buddhist cause, Premier Ky still had the upper hand in a nation beginning to weary of pointless civil strife amid a genuine, far more deadly battle for national survival against the Communists.